The Importance Of Education In South Africa

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South Africa’s schooling system remains largely dysfunctional (Bloch 2009: 17) and in peril, twenty-two years after the fall of apartheid, notwithstanding significant resource allocations by successive democratic governments. Taylor (2011: 2) argues that historically black schools have been largely unresponsive to additional resources leading to poor performance by pupils, and a poverty trap for the entirety of their lives. The poor performance of South Africa's schools is not only seen in national assessments such as the National Senior Certificate, wherein only 40% of those that enrol in grade 1 will ever pass grade 12 (Spaull 2013: 3) but also in standardised international assessments where South African pupils are routinely the worst performers.…show more content…
Education relates to one's broad human and socio-economic development and is defined by Spaull (2014: 62) to be the knowledge, skills and competencies required for one lead an economically productive and fulfilling life. It is a primary economic good of such importance that every student is required to attain a minimum set of educational outcomes (Friske & Ladd 2005: 9) which explains the government's rationale in the Schools Act of 1996 (Timaeus 2012: 271) of compelling students to attend school from the age of seven until, at least, fifteen. Education is a positive externality, as there is great societal benefit from education for which one is not necessarily, or adequately, compensated

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